The recent news about forest fires in the north has brought back a lot of memories of the years we lived in Fort Chipewyan in northern Alberta. We were there to share the message of salvation and that meant getting to know the people. So my husband, Dick, went to Hinton, Alberta, and trained to fight forest fires. During fire season the men in town were recruited to fight the fires and Dick volunteered. It was hot, hard, gruelling work and he would come home with huge carbuncle’s on his neck from the dirt and ash. But it was a small price to pay for the privilege of being with the men.

I have always been impressed with the story I heard of a Chinese Christian who stated that pastor’s in China did not cringe away from prison. They found it a place to commune with the Lord and also a place to tell other prisoners what Christ did for them.

It is easy to carry on with our everyday lives and hope that an opportunity will someday drop into our lap. But how far would you go to make it happen? One of the most moving accounts I ever heard is the story of a young couple we knew. Their church took on a new ministry and started a class for children with Down Syndrome. The response was amazing but this young wife realized there was another opportunity that went along with it. She started a Bible class for the mother’s who brought their children to the class and waited to take them home again.

It wasn’t long before she came up against a problem. “You don’t have a child with Down Syndrome, so you don’t understand our needs,” was what she constantly heard. She took that problem to the Lord. “Lord, open a way for me to reach these mothers,” was her prayer. Not much later she became pregnant. When their baby was born and the pediatrician came to her bedside regretfully telling her that her baby had Down Syndrome, her reply was, “It’s Ok.” The Lord had answered her prayer.

She went back to teaching the mother’s and they were ready to listen to what she had to say. Extreme? Maybe, but how far are you or I willing to go to reach someone with the gospel? That couple even went one step further. They adopted another baby with Down Syndrome.

We sing songs of worship telling the Lord that we give Him our heart, our soul and that we want every breath we take to glorify Him. But how far are we willing to go to make that happen? Christ gave His all to provide salvation for us. How much are we willing to do to for Him?